Rally Australia: Aussie ups and downs for Mikkelsen

Volkswagen junior driver Andreas Mikkelsen has expressed his
satisfaction after finishing sixth on Rally Australia and has given
stand-in co-driver, Paul Nagle top marks following their first event
together.

Mikkelsen led initially in Oz following Thursday
night's short super specials, and while he dropped back on the Friday
and had two scares on both runs through Newry, he remained in the
top-seven throughout.

The Norwegian may have taken fifth too, had
he not been instructed to take it easy on the final day and not get
involved in a scrap with Mads Ostberg, who was 2.6secs adrift at the end
of Saturday's tests.

“Rally Australia had its ups and downs for me,” Mikkelsen said after round ten in the 2013 World Rally Championship.

“On
Thursday, I had a chance to savour the feeling of leading in a World
Championship rally for the first time. Friday got off to a great start,
but little mistakes cost us a lot of time.

“I had to pay for them again on Saturday as one of the first World Rally
Cars on the track. And Sunday? I did all I could to get the car over
the line and help the team in the Manufacturer's Championship. That
meant going into 'cruise mode' and not going on the attack. I'm sure it
would have been more fun if we'd done things differently.”

“It
was a good debut at the Rally Australia for us, and it was great
working with my co-driver Paul Nagle, who stepped in for my usual
partner Mikko Markkula at short notice. Paul and I had a good weekend.
[Overall] it's been a fantastic and a big learning curve.”

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